Saint John's soccer wraps up its three-game homestand with a 5 p.m. match against Division II St. Cloud State on Wednesday, Sept. 8, at Haws Field. – Live Stats/Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (1-0-1 overall) ended its Labor Day weekend with a 3-1 win over Puget Sound (Wash.) this past Monday (Sept. 6) at Haws Field. The Johnnies built a 3-0 lead before the Loggers erased the shutout in the 84th minute.

Senior midfielder Kevin Stark-Haws (Cold Spring, Minn./Saint John's Prep) put SJU on the scoreboard early with his first collegiate goal 6:08 into the game. Junior defender Aidan Becken (Prior Lake, Minn.) lobbed a pass to junior forward Ryan Erickson (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Eagan) on the far post and Erickson pivoted to find Stark-Haws open at the top of the box.

Junior midfielder Matt D. Anderson (Omaha, Neb./Creighton Prep) blasted a shot from 35 yards out, with an assist to sophomore midfielder Kaiden Popp (Redmond, Wash./Mount Si), to give SJU a 2-0 lead in the 28th minute.

Senior midfielder Drew Engel (De Pere, Wis.) extended the lead to 3-0 with his second goal in as many games 1:15 into the second half. Becken lofted the ball over the crowd in the box and found Engel open on the back post. 

Puget Sound's Marko Babiak ended the shutout with a fluky goal at the 83:10 mark. Freshman goalkeeper Evan Siefken (Lakeville, Minn./North) came out of the goal box to his right and challenge the ball near the goal line, but the ball squirted away and Babiak scored on a net with Johnnie position players attempting to fill the void. Siefken finished with seven saves.

The Johnnies held a 15-13 edge in shots (15-13, 8-8 on goal) and corner kicks (7-6).

QUICK GOALS: The Johnnies have now scored a goal in the seventh minute in each of their last two games. Engel scored his first collegiate goal 6:31 into SJU's 2-0 shutout of Wisconsin-Platteville Saturday (Sept. 4). Believe it or not, this is not something new for the Johnnie soccer program. SJU scored seven goals in the game's first eight minutes in 2019.

TWO MORE ON THE ROAD: SJU concludes its non-conference schedule with a pair of road games in the next week: 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11 at Wisconsin-Whitewater and 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14 at Minnesota-Morris.

A LOOK AT THE HUSKIES: St. Cloud State opened its 2021 season – the first of the program's history due to the COVID-19 pandemic (the 2020 inaugural was canceled) – with a 0-1-1 record last weekend (Sept. 3-4) at the Division II South Dakota School of Mines. The Hardrockers scored two unanswered goals in the second half to win the opener, 2-1, and scored the game-tying goal in the 81st minute of Saturday's 2-2 draw.

Freshman midfielder Philip Caputo and sophomore midfielder Emmanuel Iwe led the team with three points (1g/1a) apiece, while junior goalkeeper Gage Steiner, a transfer from Division I Missouri State, tallied a 1.80 GAA and .692 save percentage (nine saves) over the weekend.